Kindergarten Round Table Chat

Who doesn’t want Kindergarten questions answered by Kindergarten teachers! I have teamed up with Kristina (from @sweetforkindergarten) and Stephanie (from @teachinglittleleaders) to have a Kindergarten Round Table Chat! These ladies are both amazing Kindergarten teachers and I love the inspiration they share on their accounts and their TPT stores (linked below). 

I have asked them 10 questions! Please feel free to comment with ideas or your own answer to the questions!  Enjoy!

Kindergarten Questions answered by Kindergarten Teachers

What does your routine/schedule look like on a daily basis?

We do a lot in one day! Here’s a general overview of our schedule:

• Arrival/Morning Tubs (these are hands-on activities I rotate through every week)
• Morning Meeting and Calendar
• Shared Reading
• Literacy Centers
• Read Aloud
• Independent Reading
• Recess
• Writing
• Lunch
• Math
• Math Centers
• Quick Recess/Brain Break
• Science/SS
• Word Study
• Creation Stations (a.k.a. – free play!) 

All things considered, I try my best to follow the time frames and schedule brain breaks when I think they’ll need them, but sometimes you really just have to go with the flow.
– Stephanie

Here is what a day in my classroom looks like! First of all, we start our daily routines from the very first day of school and review them throughout the year, especially after breaks.
Then, when I create our schedule, it is based around time for reading and math centers.  

-9-9:10- Morning Work
-9:10-9:20 Morning Meeting
-9:20-9:30 Phonemic Awareness
-9:30-10:30 Reading Centers
-10:30-11:00 Snack/Recess
-11:00-11:30 Morning Special
-11:30-12:00 Writing
-12:00-12:45 Lunch/Afternoon Recess
-12:45-1:00 Quiet Time/Read Aloud
-1:00-2:00 Math Centers
-2:00-2:30 Afternoon Special
-2:30-2:45 Science/Social Studies
-2:45-2:55 Pack Up/Clean Up
-2:55-3:00 Afternoon Meeting

 -Kristina

Math and Reading Centers Ideas and Management:

My kids love centers! We have 5 reading centers and 4 math centers. Our reading centers are: Word Work, Writing, Listen to Reading, Sight Words, and Teacher Table. Our math centers follow the M.A.T.H. acronym and stand for: Meet with the teacher, Apply (students apply skills they’ve learned in an interactive math journal), Technology, and Hands-On. Time management during centers has always been a struggle for me. That’s why I use my Center Slides with Automatic Timers to help us stay on track. This resource has auditory cues built in that help my students know when to clean up and look for the next center.
-Stephanie

This is the most important part of our day! They practice important social skills like taking turns, solving conflict, and helping each other during centers. I have four centers that change out daily- with between 2 and 5 per center group (depending on class size).
Center #1–my small group at my teacher table. We practice the weekly phonics skill, sight words, reading comprehension, and fluency. Typically, I have the same activity, but differentiate it based on the needs of each group.
Center #2 –Technology Center. On IPads, they choose an app, and on the Chromebooks, they will go to an educational site like abcya.com or starfall.com. Students may choose where they go to work if they have an iPad for the day, and the Chromebooks stay at our Technology table (a low table with crate seats.)
Center #3 –our activity center on the carpet. This is either a picture sort, sensory bin, write the room, matching game, go fish, bingo, sentence building, puzzle, etc.
Center #4–our hands on center at a table. This is either a cut and paste sort, letter or phonics craft, playdoh work, sort by color, or writing center. These centers stay the same throughout the year, and the activities are all similar, but they just practice different skills. I use an online timer with clean up music playing for the last minute. When the students hear the music, they stop what they are doing and clean up. Once the music stops, I say switch and students rotate clockwise to the next center!
-Kristina

Here are some product recommendations for math and reading from Stephanie and Kristina!

Math:

• Reagan Tunstall’s number sense units (Numbers 11-20 and Comparing Numbers). 
• Stations by Standard  by Reagan Tunstall 
• My resource: Measurement Unit for K-1. I tried to develop it so that it included authentic tasks. There was one day this year during a lesson from that unit that I just listened to my students talk about measurement and had the realization that that was what math should sound like every day.
• BUILD Math centers from Kickin it in Kindergarten
• Mindful MathCurriculum by Proud to be Primary
• Math Word Wall by Jillian Starr- The Starr Spangled Planner

Reading:

• Leveled Sight Word Activities (Teaching Little Leaders)
• Deanna Jump’s Engaging Readers Units
• Daily PhonemicAwareness from Kickin it in Kindergarten
• All in One ReadingPassages from A Teachable Teacher
• Sight Word SuperStars by The Moffatt Girls
• Phonics BasedReaders Theaters by A Teeny Tiny Teacher
• Kindergarten StoryMats by Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten

What is your teacher advice for recess duty?

At the beginning of the year, make sure you spend plenty of time on expectations. We go over what’s appropriate and not appropriate recess behavior before heading to the playground. You may even want to model it on the playground equipment! If there’s a popular playground toy, expect your kids to have a hard time understanding how to take turns at first and what is an appropriate amount of time for them to be using it before they switch with a friend. Usually, at the beginning of the year I have to monitor when it’s time to switch before they get used to it. 
-Stephanie

Try to get those steps in! Recess duty is the perfect time to talk and build relationships with your students. When students try and tell me stories during the day, I always tell them that they can tell me during recess. 
-Kristina

What does your play time consist of, if you have this time?

We call our free-play time “Creation Stations.” Play is so important! At the beginning of the year, this time is pretty structured. I chose 5-6 activities or toys to put out during that time and students decide where they’d like to go. As the year went on, I allowed them to choose what they’d like to take out. My students are allowed to take out whatever they’d like to, as long as they clean it up before moving to something new. Free-play activities or toys include: Kitchen, dress-up, art, dinosaurs, animals, Lincoln Logs, Legos, or playdough. 
-Stephanie

We do a “Fun Friday” every week on Friday afternoons. I use this as motivation for students to finish their center work throughout the week. If students finish all their work, they get to have free play for 45 minutes on Friday before dismissal. If a student has unfinished work, it is usually because they were fooling around during centers and did not stay on task. Those students have to finish their work before they get to play. In my classroom, we have Legos, magnatiles, puzzles, iPads, board games, play doh, and watercolor paint.
-Kristina

Want more kindergarten questions answered by kindergarten teachers? Keep reading…

Classroom Management ideas:

• I like to use my Digital Classroom Procedure Slides to help remind me what we need to cover. We also say our classroom rules every day at the beginning of the day, and sometimes in the middle when we need it.
• I also love Especially Education’s Whole Body Listening resource. She has books and visuals that have helped my students understand what they should look like during different parts of the day. 
• I started using Brag Tags in my classroom this year and my kids really enjoy them! It took me some time to get in the habit of handing them out, but now that we’re in the swing of things that works really well. Aimee from Primarily Speaking has some great brag tags for academics and expectations. When I see my students following our expectations I silently start handing them out. I also explain that they can earn the same brag tag multiple times.

-Stephanie

• Hand signals are a lifesaver in Kindergarten. We have a different one for bathroom, water, pencil, tissue, and question. This helps eliminate students raising their hands during a lesson!
• I have an “Ask 3, then me” sign on my teacher table and students know that during centers they have to ask 3 friends for help before coming to me.
• Secret Star Walker- I pick a Popsicle stick with a student’s name on it. That student is secretly watched during our hallway transition. If they walk with hallway expectations, they get a skittle when we get back! When I notice my line starting to act crazy in the hall, I just remind them I’m watching the “Secret Star Walker” and that helps with whole line management. If the chosen student acts out in line, then they do not get a treat. I don’t tell them who it was or what they did wrong. Students who may not have been walking nicely will now try harder next time. 

-Kristina

Writing Workshop in the classroom:

We use the Writer’s Workshop model and I absolutely love it! The general framework is: mini-lesson, independent writing time/teacher conferencing, mid-workshop teaching point, and a share time. During writer’s workshop, students are writing about a self-selected topic in a teacher chosen genre. My Kindergarteners are amazing at choosing topics. I really enjoy hearing what they come up with!  
-Stephanie

Here is a weekly schedule of what our weekly writing looks like. We do writing every day for a half hour!

Monday- We watch our letter of the week video and do a circle map. Then we practice handwriting with that letter and when they are finished they do their own circle map.

Tuesday- I display a page of pictures with the word labeled under them. Students pick one word to write a sentence and draw a picture. These pictures are usually ones that correlate with the season, holiday, or what we are studying about in Science or Social Studies.

Wednesday- We do a page from our Handwriting Packet.

Thursday- Sight Word Sentences- We write sentences using our sight words. At the beginning of the year, it is mainly them repeating the sentences and copying, but by the end they are doing it independently.

Friday- Weekly Writing Prompt- We have an Essential Question with our reading curriculum every week, so we discuss the question, then answer it in a complete sentence and draw a picture.
-Kristina

What do you wish you knew when you started?

I wish I knew how fun Kindergarten can be. To be honest, I was very hesitant to teach Kindergarten. My first 2 years teaching, I taught second grade and loved it. From the outside, Kindergarten seemed like a whole different kind of teaching world. I didn’t know how independent these little 5 and 6 year olds could be and how fun it would be to teach them. It truly feels like a privilege to get to be their first school experience!
-Stephanie

Routines are so important to establish at the beginning of the year. Go over everything slowly, modeling everything until all your students can do it independently. If you stick to these routines, your students will become very independent and your classroom will run smoothly! 
-Kristina

Favorite parent communication TPT products?

My team and I use an app/website called Bloomz. It’s absolutely free and you can do so much! It’s essentially a private social media page for your parents, but it also includes a scheduler. With Bloomz I can privately message parents and post pictures, videos, or announcements from our week. My favorite feature is the Sign Up part. I can create sign-ups for volunteers, items we need, and parent-teacher conferences. It seriously makes scheduling SO simple. 
-Stephanie

Editable classroom newsletters- I fill in what we are learning every week and any important announcements and upload it to our class website. There are plenty options on TPT, but I do have one in my store that are seasonal/holiday themed and you can edit in PowerPoint! 
-Kristina

What do the first few days/ weeks look like?

The first few days and weeks are so much fun! They’re filled with learning procedures and expectations. My best tip: take it slow! No task is too simple. We learn how to use (and not use) pencils, scissors, crayons, glue… pretty much all of our learning tools. They will also need a lot of breaks at first and that is absolutely okay! We also spent a lot of time during the first few months of school learning appropriate social skills. I purchased Tara West’s Kinder Social Skills resource and it was so helpful! However you approach it, I highly recommend finding time to fit social/emotional lessons into your daily or weekly schedule. 
-Stephanie

We spend the first few weeks going over routines and implementing classroom management. I spend the first week doing minimal academics and mostly working on social skills, like sharing and teamwork. When introducing centers, we practice the routine of centers, like cleaning up, rotating, what to do when you’re done, etc, but I have puzzles, playdoh, and legos at each center instead. This also shows me which students work well together and which don’t. I do not have my own teacher center until after the first month of school. I wait until centers have a nice flow before I sit down and teach my small group lessons!
-Kristina

Thank you SO much ladies for taking the time to answer my kindergarten questions! You had wonderful advice for Kindergarten teachers, new and old!

Kristina
Check out her blog, TPT store, and Instagram!

Stephanie
Check out her blog, TPT store and Instagram! 

Check out other related posts:

Back to School Read Alouds